The Disappointment Shop

I walk into the disappointment shop.

Immediately, I am disappointed:

a man approaches me to ask if I

need help. “I’m disappointed,” I explain.

“I would have thought that in a shop like yours

the service would be non-existent, so

it’s rather disappointing that you offer

assistance.” Silently, he hands a card

to me. I read the words inside my head.

The items in this shop are not for sale

at any price. My days of petty theft

have long since passed into the realms of folklore,

so stealing’s not an option as I’d surely

be caught. The shop assistant walks towards

the door and turns the key inside the lock.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he says. “We’re shut.” I ask

if he could let me out. “You haven’t bought

it yet.” I puzzle over what he’s said;

I wonder what the ‘it’ he mentions is,

then see it. Knowing that it can’t be bought

(at any price) I ask if I could hold it.

The shop assistant hands it over to me

(he doesn’t know how clumsy I can be).

We watch it fall upon the ground and smash.